One of my ongoing research interests is the way in which metaphors shape the way we think about the interwebs. For example, we often describe technological changes as revolutions, breakthroughs, or cutting edge. These kinds of metaphors may mask the ways in which the interwebs are not revolutionary and recapitulate existing inequalities. Nevertheless, one of my… Read More Plagues, Viruses, and the Internet
I’m currently rereading Jürgen Habermas‘s (1991) The Structural Transformation of the Public Space and thought about writing a post about that. However, I’m not sure I’m ready to tackle German philosophy in this space … yet. Instead, I want to talk about photocopiers. This boingboing article by Mark Frauenfelder highlights how Xerox did not anticipate… Read More Photocopier
Like this article in The Onion, we tend to anthropomorphize technology. Like the woman in the article, I talk about how my computer hates me or about how my phone seems to know exactly when to run out of battery power. We give machines human emotions and motives. But for how complex these machines are,… Read More Computers Aren’t People
Alison A. Lukowski 